Keene State plans to roll out a new retirement plan for Keene State College Education Association (KSCEA) tenure track and clinical faculty age 55 or older and have been with the school for 10 or more years.
During an all-campus meeting on Friday, Feb. 9, President Melinda Treadwell announced the Career Transition Incentive Plan (CTI) publicly. She stated the plan would save the college over $650,000.
According to James Beeby, provost and vice president of academic affairs, the CTI applications will officially be offered by the end of February.
“It’s totally voluntary,” Beeby said.
Beeby noted there is a cap of two with how many tenure track and clinical faculty can take up on the offer per department.
“We are hoping we can help to reshape our faculty base and shift some positions where there are urgent needs,” Beeby said.
This is not the first time a similar retirement plan has been included in the collective bargaining agreement between the KSCEA and KSC, but the school was not offering it anymore, Beeby said.
By taking up the offer and getting final approval by Beeby, tenure track and clinical faculty receive compensation in the form of one and a half years salary over 39 pay periods and keep their healthcare benefits for two years or until 65, whichever comes first.
Beeby said they project around 10 members of the union will take up the offer.
As for backfilling plans, they plan to fill about 70% or seven of those positions. However, which departments will have new full-time faculty, is up in the air.
Additionally, Beeby said eight searches were approved for full-time faculty across several departments.
According to the President of the KSCEA and Associate Professor of Economics, William McColloch, even if they only hire a potential 70% of the possible 10 who take up the plan, the school should gain a net of five faculty, because full-time or endowed position searches are already underway.
McColloch said one way the school can look for cost-saving measures despite the net gain in faculty, is when the school hires newer younger faculty it is cheaper than continuing to pay well-established faculty who have been with the school for 10 plus years.
With the recent budget cuts of $14 million by the University of New Hampshire, achieved by laying off 75 employees, McColloch noted, he and the union are not particularly worried about something similar happening here, but “Real shocks can very much happen.” with the difficult position higher education is in in the greater New England areas.
Beeby also expressed the plan is very different from what is happening across the state in Durham.
“This is not about downsizing,” Beeby said.
Tim Bruns can be contacted at
tbruns@kscequinox.com
